O'Keeffe's mother blames police for accused's death

The mother of murdered Irish backpacker Trevor O'Keeffe has blamed French authorities for the suicide of the man suspected of killing her son.

I think his suicide proves his guilt ... Chanal was guilty as hell; I always thought so but I couldn't say it, now I can say it Ms Eroline O'Keeffe

Ms Eroline O'Keeffe was speaking after Pierre Chanal (56), a French army veteran charged with the murder of her 19-year-old son, was found dead while in police custody earlier today.

He is thought to have smuggled a razor blade into his cell and to have used it to cut an artery in his leg.

Ms O'Keeffe blamed Chanal's suicide on the clumsiness of the French authorities, saying "they allowed it to happen".

Today, she told The Irish Times: "We didn't strive for Chanal's suicide, we strove for truth and justice and Chanal robbed us of that just as he robbed me of my son.

"I think his suicide proves his guilt ... Chanal was guilty as hell; I always thought so but I couldn't say it, now I can say it."

Pierre Chanal's sister arriving at court yesterday

Chanal was suspected of killing several men, some of whom were French army conscripts based in camps where Chanal served at the time. Almost all vanished in a section of the Marne region, northeast of Paris, between three military garrisons, which became known as "the triangle of death".

Chanal, who denied the murder charges, had already served a jail sentence for the rape and kidnapping of a young Hungarian man he picked up hitch-hiking in 1988. He received a 10-year sentence for the attack, and was released in 1995 on probation.

Chanal was tried for the murder of two men who disappeared near a military camp in northeastern France in 1985 and 1987, and of Mr O'Keeffe, who was found battered and strangled in a shallow grave in August 1987.

French police initially refused to launch a full investigation into the disappearance of the conscripts, and the army informed their parents they had probably deserted.

Amid mounting public anger, magistrates eventually started to take the cases seriously and began questioning hundreds of military personnel based in the nearby garrisons.

As forensic technology improved, police carried out DNA tests on hairs found in the back of Chanal's van. Scientists said there was a "very strong probability" the hairs belonged to three of the missing men, including Mr O'Keeffe.